All Campaigns subcategories:
NHS keywords:
Mental health
Highlight keywords |
Print this article
Search site for keywords: Mental health - NHS - Health - Benefits - South Yorkshire
NHS: Night shift and a cold rage
A mental health worker
I'm a psychiatric nurse in a crisis/home treatment capacity in a South Yorkshire mental health trust.
Tonight I worked a night shift. I assessed three very different people in the local A&E department, three people who are all in their own ways victims of austerity.
The first was a young woman who, earlier that day, was subjected to a sexual assault by her partner. Despite experiencing such an awful ordeal, one of the woman's principal anxieties was about money.
With the partner now gone, she realised it will take the DWP weeks to adjust her benefits and having no family living locally, she had no idea where she would find money for food and to pay her payday lender.
In a humane society the victim of such an assault would not have to contend with these worries. But where's the humanity in Iain Duncan Smith's benefits regime?
The second was a resident in a private care home that claims to specialise in accommodating people with mental health problems.
That afternoon the man had got drunk and become troublesome to staff and was sent to hospital in an ambulance, with a request for a mental state assessment.
By the time I spoke to him he had sobered up and calmed down. His behaviour was not the product of mental illness - he is unhappy living in the care home and wishes to live independently.
This is not an issue a crisis worker can address at two in the morning. All I could do was to suggest that he returns to the care home and asks to see his social worker to discuss his placement in the morning.
The care home staff initially refused to take this man back. The A&E sister had to argue with them over the telephone for almost an hour before they relented.
The home charges the local authority £1,200 a week to provide "specialist care" for this man.
Private care homes regularly dump residents they find difficult to manage onto local NHS hospitals and then try to walk away from their duty of care.
I don't actually blame staff in these homes. They're often paid the minimum wage and with minimal staffing levels.
I can understand why they seek to remove individuals who display challenging behaviours.
What makes my blood boil are the owners, who charge the NHS and local councils huge sums of money for services they clearly cannot deliver.
The final assessment was with a woman who had taken an overdose. On benefits and with two teenage sons, she cannot afford to buy her boys new shoes. In a moment of despair she saw suicide as the only way out.
She was tearful and contrite when I spoke to her, ashamed of her actions. Beyond showing compassion, there was little I could actually do for her. The NHS does not have a cure for poverty.
It was a fairly typical night for a mental health crisis team working in Cameron's Britain. We see some people whose difficulties are due to mental illness but for the most part our client group are victims of an inflexible benefits system, of private providers that attempt to shirk their duties of care and of poverty.
Rain fills the sky as I leave the hospital to return to my base. The heavy grey clouds matched my mood.
Back at the office I revive my spirits with coffee and a cigarette. I "officially" gave up smoking six years ago but caffeine and nicotine are the only things keeping me going throughout a night shift.
Like many health professionals, the stresses of the job make me a lousy poster boy for healthy living.
Another typical night and typically I am angry. It's a cold rage that I feel, but a rage of empowerment which steels my determination to fight for socialism and to win the day when the stories I heard tonight become distant memories of a cruel and defeated past.
Donate to the Socialist Party
Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
LATEST POSTS
12 May Stop Israeli state brutality
 |
9 May Post-election meetings
15 May Birmingham Socialist Party: How can we fight for socialist change and a new workers' party?
17 May Oxfordshire & Aylesbury Socialist Party: The role of the state
18 May Bristol North Socialist Party: Liverpool - history of socialist struggle
CONTACT US
Phone our national office on 020 8988 8777
Email: [email protected]
Locate your nearest Socialist Party branch Text your name and postcode to 07761 818 206
Regional Socialist Party organisers:
Eastern: 079 8202 1969
East Mids: 077 3797 8057
London: 075 4018 9052
North East: 078 4114 4890
North West 079 5437 6096
South West: 077 5979 6478
Southern: 078 3368 1910
Wales: 079 3539 1947
West Mids: 024 7655 5620
Yorkshire: 078 0983 9793
ABOUT US
ARCHIVE
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999